The relaxed posture disappeared.
His hand moved inside his jacket.
Roman closed the ledger.
“Stay behind me.”
The command was quiet.
Not frightening.
Protective.
I almost argued.
Almost.
Then I saw his face.
This was not the businessman from the newspapers.
This was the man people whispered about.
The man who survived because he noticed danger before it arrived.
The elevator doors opened.
Nobody stepped out.
For three seconds, nothing happened.
Then a small envelope slid across the floor.
The bodyguard picked it up.
Roman looked at it.
“Don’t.”
The bodyguard stopped.
Roman stared at the envelope.
“Why?”
“Because whoever left it wants us to open it.”
“And?”
Roman’s eyes darkened.
“And because they know exactly where we are.”
A chill went through me.
“They followed me.”
Roman looked at me.
“No.”
He looked toward the elevator.
“They followed the ledger.”
The words settled heavily.
The person who had been watching me for eight years…
The person who put my name inside Roman’s secret records…
The person connected to Calder Freight Services…
Was still out there.
Waiting.
Roman finally picked up the envelope himself.
He opened it slowly.
Inside was one photograph.
He looked at it.
Then his entire expression changed.
I stepped closer.
“What is it?”
Roman did not answer.
“Roman?”
He turned the photograph around.
And when I saw it…
I forgot how to breathe.
It was a picture of my mother.
But not the mother I remembered.
This photograph showed her years younger.
Standing beside a man.
A man I had never seen before.
A man Roman clearly recognized.
Because his voice became almost a whisper.
“Your mother wasn’t hiding from danger.”
I looked at him.
“Then what was she doing?”
Roman stared at the photograph.
“She was running from someone.”
A pause.
“And apparently…”
His eyes moved to mine.
“She was trying to protect you.”
The city lights outside continued shining.
The world continued moving.
But my entire past had just changed.
Because for the first time in my life…
I wondered if my mother had not disappeared.
Maybe she had been taken away from me.
